Level 100: Trost. Survey Corps Camp, Meeting Room.
"Wha-" Kirito began, not able to finish the word that he had begun. His mind did not properly process the information first time round.
Asuna and Kimiko were visibly as shocked as Kirito, stunned into silence by the newfound knowledge that contradicted their shared assumption about the Survey Corps. Erwin had stopped laughing, but did not continue speaking yet, for fear of losing his composure once more.
"We act almost like a guild, and have been in the Trost area since the end of the Kayaba's speech in the Colosseum; when they finished talking, we were forced transported to the Central Plaza here in Trost the same way we were into the Colosseum. He then came and told us that we had been randomly selected to start in this section of SAO." Hange continued, recalling the first moments of her time in SAO.
Level 100: Trost. Outside The Wall. (SAO Launch Day)
Bewilderment struck the faces of the hundred players as the blue haze of the forced teleport faded once more, and they saw that this was not the Starting Town, or anywhere remotely resembling it. Hange gasped in shock, already completely stunned by the GM's introductory speech in the Colosseum. She'd been a beta tester, and this was not what the game had been like last time, and definitely not what she signed up for.
"Death... means death... in the real world?" She mumbled under her breath, trying to comprehend the startling information Akihiko Kayaba had just given them. This was a man she idolised, worshipped... had he condemned her to death, purely by virtue of her undying support for his work?
Hange and the other players stood in front of a wall, 50 or so metres tall; it was made up of tough grey stone, and looked like there was no way through, save for the gate that stood directly in front of them; the wall and gate seemed impenetrable. The gate was made of more reddish brick, with a large crest displayed like a signal of hope: a regal woman's face looking left, an intricate crown gracing her forehead, with a background of red to the left, and green to the right. She wondered if this place would this be safe. These hopes soon appeared to be dashed.
The red and green began to seep from the crest in front of her, collecting in a bowl and building up the Gamemaster avatar of Akihiko Kayaba once more, clouding out the players' view of much of the wall.
"Hello players. As you can see, you are no longer in the Starting Town. This is Trost. You have been chosen at random, and will experience Sword Art Online in a unique way. The details of this, you will have to discover for yourselves. However, the information that was disclosed in the Colosseum stands for you just the same as the other players. I hope you enjoy your time in Sword Art Online."
With that, Akihiko Kayaba's avatar disappeared once more.
Level 100: Trost. (One week after SAO Launch)
Hange could see the Commander of the guild, known only as Shadis, stood in front of 20 players that surrounded her, still reeling from the Akihiko Kayaba's revelations from 7 days ago. "We're all confused, and scared. But we can't be. We must carry on, we must fight, and we must beat Akihiko Kayaba's game of death. Our families and friends are waiting for us, so let's make a start and begin levelling up out there against the nearby mobs." He called triumphantly to them.
Hange was impressed with the development he and Erwin – the Vice Commander – had made in the past week, calming some of the players and forming the Survey Corps guild. Most of the players in had little armour (but what they had was plastered with the Survey Corps crest) and fairly weak starter weapons – rapiers, long-swords and katanas seemed to be the most common choices – and yet morale was steadily increasing, and faith in Shadis was growing.
Hange swayed the katana in her hand, gauging the weight and balance of it in comparison to the Anneal Blade she'd obtained in the beta. Erwin interrupted this with a shout to the crowd.
"The 21 of you all volunteered to be part of the first group to try and level up. We are wondering if there are any beta testers among you?" Hange zoned out slightly, musing about Erwin's voice; he seemed able to instantly calm the nerves of anyone with his soothing tone, even while shouting. She could've sworn she recognised his voice... but why? She was snapped out of her thoughts by the confident man once again as he continued to speak, having received no answer. "We know that there can be stigma surrounding beta testers, but we would be at a great advantage if you revealed you skills now. Shadis and I are happy to disclose that we were indeed members of the beta test."
With that Hange's mind whirled back to the beta test, remembering that Erwin had broken up a fight between two players in a bar. Hange was glad having remembered this that Erwin was the Vice Commander of the guild; he was compassionate, but fierce when the necessary time arose.
A tall man – slightly taller than even Erwin and Shadis – walked up to the front of the group to the steps that the two men had been stood on to address us. He turned, his blonde hair too short to even sway from this movement, showing a thin, dark moustache that sat underneath his long, thin nose. He was a broad, built man, which was more impressive given that the avatars' bodies were now representative of the real-life bodies of the players.
"My name is Hannes." He began, audibly nervous of the potential backlash he could face for being a beta tester. "I too participated in the beta test."
This gave Hange a rush of confidence to calmly walk to the front of the group, stopping next to Hannes and turning around to face the crowd of players. She only reached around Hannes' shoulder in height, but stood over many of the other players due to the slight platform they were stood on. "I was one of the beta testers as well." Hange confirmed, slowing her nerves and looking across to Shadis and Erwin, who nodded in reply.
Four beta testers and nineteen rookies. It was better than two and twenty-one, but still not ideal. 'There may be other beta testers in the other seventy-seven,' Hange pondered, 'but there certainly haven't been any others that I've recognised.'
"Right. You all remember the briefing?" Shadis bellowed, getting the reply of a sea of nodding heads; meanwhile, Erwin walked over to address Hannes and Hange.
"Thank you for coming forward there," Erwin whispered to the pair, "we have to look out for the others, we don't know what'll be waiting for us outside."
"We're pretty stunned by the difference, but at least we have the experience from the beta." Hannes added, agreeing with Erwin that the beta testers would take on the responsibility for looking out for the rookies.
"How far did you guys get?" Hange probed inquisitively.
"Erm..." Hannes rubbed the back of his head and smiled sheepishly. "I wasn't one of the leading clearers!" He laughed this off a little, before sighing a little. "I got up to Level Four in the end. Fortunately I didn't really use much more advanced weaponry than what we have, so I shouldn't be too rusty. You and Shadis sound like you were probably clearers, right?"
"Actually, me and Shadis weren't quite clearers; we led the group that followed the clearers. We got to partway through Level Eight, but we tried to make sure less experienced and less confident players were able to get through some boss fights than get as far as we could." Erwin replied, self-assured as ever. "How about you... um?" Erwin concluded, realising that he didn't actually know his comrade's name.
"Oh! Hange... sorry." She began, embarrassed that she'd forgotten to introduce herself to any of her fellow soldiers. "Me and a friend formed a guild in the beta along with a couple of people we met in the Starting Town; we got about three quarters of the way through Level Seven."
At this point they came to a stop; each slightly startled having not noticed they'd been walking throughout the conversation, so wrapped up in nostalgic recollection of the beta test's adventure. They had reached the gate, at which point Shadis called over two players by the name of Franz and Hugo; Franz was a tall, muscular young man with shaved black hair, while Hugo was smaller and slightly more rounded, with slicked back brown hair. They raised the gate a little, meaning Hange could walk under without issue but Hannes and Erwin had to duck their heads a little to avoid scraping against it.
Outside the Wall was very much similar to Trost inside it, but much larger and more varied; there were a few buildings close by, with a waterway to the left that led to the edge of the horizon, and a forestry area nearby in front of them: further off in the distance directly in front stood a town – not too dissimilar to Trost – that looked badly damaged even from this far away; smoke was rising from some of the buildings, and there was no visible human movement.
Hange's virtual heart sank as she saw the beasts that were moving. Giant humanoid creatures, towering over the players, dozens of them visible both in the distance and closer to the Wall. Shadis called out for the attack, over estimating the combat abilities of even the beta testers, let alone the rookie players.
10 players died that day.
Dieter was a young man with messy blonde hair in right side parting, and was the first of the players to die, lifted up by the waist and snapped in half with an agonising crack; his blood spewed out and many of the players either vomited or screamed. Ivan – another young man who'd befriended Dieter during the week in Trost – yelled at the beast and ran at it, rapier brandished above his spiked brown hair, but was squashed under its enormous palm, his avatar shattering into thousands of blue pieces and dissipating into the sky. Moses was next to die, being crushed under the weight of one of the giants as it fell, having been sufficiently damaged to the legs that it dropped to its knees, landing on top of one of the brightest sparks in the Survey Corps in the skirmish up to that point. However, the death that came moments after this was possibly the most shocking and distressing.
Hange could still picture Shadis, hanging half out the mouth of one of the giants as it smiled, knowing it had caught exactly what it wanted to. The agony of watching real-life husband and wife Grisha and Carla bursting into small blue shards having been killed moments apart; Grisha – a lean man with long brown hair, slight facial hair resting on his upper lip and thin, round glasses – was crushed by one of the giants' feet, as Carla threw herself towards him, trying to rescue him, before being lifted from where she'd remained – lying on the ground sobbing into the floor where he died – and consumed by the very same beast. Hange took slight comfort in having killed that particular beast in memory of the kind couple that she had known only a week. Even three years later, Hange still mourned the loss of the two innocent souls, particularly the sweet, angelic woman; Hange occasionally wondered if they had had children outside of the game, and what became of them if they did. The thought was haunting.
Franz was killed, trying to save a young freckled girl called Hannah, both being consumed before bursting into blue snowflakes in the mouths of the savage mobs, as they continued feasting on the players. Hugo was also killed, having been bitten in half by another giant, while Hannes had become frozen in fear after seeing Shadis die and was crushed into the blue crystals that signalled ones demise in this world.
Following that battle, the Survey Corps new just how tough the battle they faced was. They lost 10 players – 10 lives – just going a few hundred metres outside the gate, let alone anywhere near a boss or dungeon. They'd also lost the experience of two beta testers, and the leadership of Shadis. However, a silver lining to this battle was the discovery of a skilled rookie that killed more individual mobs than any other. His name was Levi, and in a later discussion with Erwin and Hange, coined the term for these monsters. These giants. These... Titans.